Russia has launched a series of massive attacks on Ukrainian railways, using new tactics to hit key railway nodes, but the transport network is still in working order, said Oleksandr Pertsovsky, the general director of Ukrainian Railways, quoted by Reuters.
"Their first goal is to sow panic among passengers, and the second - to hit the entire economy of the country. There does not appear to have been any deliberate attacks on trains carrying military cargo. "Essentially, all these strikes are on civilian infrastructure," the director told reporters.
Attacks on railways have intensified
The state-owned Ukrainian Railways (UZH), which employs 170,000 people, has been under attack by Russia since the start of the three-year war, but the attacks have intensified, causing regular delays. Since the war began in February 2022, the rail network has been vital for people moving in and out of the country, as all civilian flights have been suspended.
World leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former US President Joe Biden have made state visits by train, Reuters recalls.
UZH's popular sleeping cars are considered a reliable way to travel overnight and arrive early in the morning in cities hundreds of kilometers away. However, the latest Russian strikes have started to delay passengers by several hours. The railways also play a key role in transporting military equipment and commercial cargo, although the volume of the latter has fallen sharply during the war, which has had a significant impact on the company's finances.
Pertsovsky said that the Russian attacks, which have affected dozens of railway stations, are linked to the huge increase in drones produced by the Russian military-industrial complex. "Before, they didn't have enough resources with a single Shahed drone to hit a locomotive, but now they can use several drones of the same type to target several locomotives rather than other strategic targets," he added.
Fast but expensive recovery
So far, the railways have been recovering from each strike, with the immediate disruption of transport usually lasting from 6 to 12 hours, with electric locomotives being replaced by diesel ones until power is restored.
"Since the middle of this summer, Russia has attacked several electric railway substations and other key infrastructure nodes with an average of six or seven long-range Shahed drones during the night. Six key railway stations have been bombed since the beginning of the summer," Pertsovsky specified.
The railway also faces sabotage by agents recruited by Russia. Ukrainian intelligence services regularly detain suspects accused of planting bombs at vulnerable points on the railway network, Reuters notes.